The NBA will soon expand and add new teams. However, which teams will it add? There is plenty of speculation. Perhaps this could even help revitalize the All-Star game. Without further ado, here are our thoughts on the next NBA expansion team.
NBA Expansion: Why Do It?
There are a number of reasons why the NBA wants to expand and add new teams. The first benefit of doing so is fairly simple. New teams increase the NBA’s revenue.
New teams mean more games and this leads to increased revenue for the NBA. Additionally, new teams can help the NBA negotiate more lucrative broadcast rights deals, as well. As such, adding new teams increases the NBA’s short-term and long-term financial situation. This is far from the only benefit of the NBA expanding, though.
Another benefit of expanding the NBA by adding another team is that the NBA establishes a presence in a new market. Even in the US, there are a decent number of states that do not have even a single NBA team. However, NBA expansion can help address that and further cement the NBA as one of the top professional sports leagues in the world. Now that it is clear why the NBA wants to expand, it makes sense to move onto answering the question of what the next NBA expansion team will be.
Seattle Is the Most Likely Destination for a New NBA Team
Many people remember that Seattle, Washington used to have an NBA team. This team was the Seattle Supersonics. The team’s owner relocated the team to Oklahoma City and the team changed its name to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Fans of the Supersonics were outraged by this decision and were left bitter after the loss of their beloved team. However, the NBA might resolve this situation with its expansion efforts.
Seattle is the most likely destination for a new NBA team. The city has the proper infrastructure for the new team and a passionate fanbase that has wanted an NBA team back in their city since the relocation of the Seattle Supersonics. Bringing back the Supersonics in the upcoming expansion makes perfect sense. It also makes sense in that bringing the Supersonics back to the city of Seattle would provide the NBA with plenty of good publicity.
Many people other than Supersonics fans disliked how the team left Seattle. This expansion gives the NBA the opportunity to eliminate the bitterness that arose in the wake of the Supersonics’ unceremonious end. However, it is important to keep in mind that Seattle isn’t the only city in consideration when thinking about NBA expansion.
Las Vegas Could Be the Host of a New Team
The other city that is in serious consideration for receiving a new NBA team is Las Vegas. Las Vegas hosted one of the NBA’s in-season tournament finals and has hosted an All-Star game in the past. Additionally, Las Vegas is already the home of a major sports team, namely the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. Las Vegas has the necessary money to construct infrastructure for an NBA team and there are plenty of sports fans in Nevada that would welcome a team to their state. If the NBA decides to expand by adding a Western Conference team, Las Vegas would be a close second choice for a host city behind Seattle.
Additionally, Las Vegas makes sense as a host city due to the various partnerships that the NBA has with various sports betting companies. Las Vegas is the gambling capital of the world and an NBA team there only strengthens those ties. Now, it is time to discuss how NBA expansion happens when it takes place.
Who Pays for the New NBA Expansion Team?
Thankfully, the answer to this is relatively straightforward. The owner of the new NBA team pays all of the current owners of the existing NBA teams a fee in order to receive the right to establish a new team. Adding a new team to the NBA affects all of the existing teams. As a result, the NBA divides the expansion fee equally among all of the current team owners. It is worth noting that creating a new NBA team typically costs more compared to purchasing an existing NBA team.
How Does the New Team Receive Players?
Obviously, the new team needs players in order to play games. However, since they have never played an NBA season before, a new team doesn’t have any draft picks until after their first season in the league. Therefore, the new team initially constructs its roster via an Expansion Draft. This happens prior to the regular NBA Draft.
The current teams may protect some of their players by making them ineligible for the draft. However, the current teams cannot do this for all of their players. The expansion team drafts players who the current teams haven’t protected in order to build their roster. Additionally, the salary cap works differently for a newly-created NBA team.
NBA Expansion Teams Have Different Salary Cap Rules
The salary cap is one of the most important rules pertaining to an NBA team’s finances. However, it is important to mention the fact that it works differently for an expansion team. It doesn’t work the same as it does for a current team that has been in the NBA for three years or more. Expansion teams have to work with a reduced salary cap for their first two seasons in the league.
The expansion team has to operate with a salary cap that is 66.67% of the league’s normal salary cap in their first season. After that, the expansion team must work with a salary cap that is 80% of the league’s salary cap in their second season. However, from the team’s third season and beyond, the expansion team operates under the same full salary cap as the rest of the teams in the NBA. This rule is likely to prevent expansion teams from overspending early on. This means that the team has to adjust to the NBA with less money to spend.
That concludes our article on the next NBA expansion team.